


Untitled Joe Ledger DC Comics Crossover *Updated 2/12*

by H3C70R



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman: The Animated Series, Joe Ledger Series - Jonathan Maberry
Genre: Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 22:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9569084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H3C70R/pseuds/H3C70R
Summary: Bruce Wayne is wrongly accused of funneling money into a terrorist organization.  Joe Ledger and the DMS, along with Dick Grayson and Oliver Queen investigate.  Not just to clear Bruce's name, but potentially to save the world.Severely unfinished, will actually update this eventually.





	

1007 Mountain Drive  
03:00 AM

This guy was good.

I mean seriously good.

I'm good too, and I hate to admit it, this guy was better. At least hand-to-hand. I bet I could drill a bullet in his skull faster than he'd blink, but that wasn't the kind of fight I was in.

Captain Joe Ledger, leader of Echo Team for the DMS. You wouldn't have heard of us. It's better that way.

Me and the team were here on a routine snatch and grab. There was someone here who had answers to questions we couldn't ask anyone else.

Top and Bunny were the other two operators on Echo Team, we have a high turnover rate, new recruits haven't been properly vetted yet, we're down a couple.

Still, should have been way more than enough muscle to pick up one unarmed man, surprising him in the middle of the night in his bedroom.

That was our first mistake.

We didn't surprise him, but he sure as shit surprised us.

We came up the staircase quickly and quietly. I picked the lock on his door, and we surrounded the bed. When I pulled the covers up to reveal a startled man, I found pillows.

Pillows draped in fancy pajamas.

I felt like an idiot.

That's when the surprise came.

At the foot of the massive bed was an old cedar chest, he kicked the lid open and off its hinges from inside, and threw a gas grenade in the air.

Grenade isn't really the right term, it was a small metal sphere that didn't explode, but emitted pressurized gas in our faces, falling harmlessly back on the man who'd thrown it.

He darted up out of the confines of the chest, and put all his weight into a falling elbow drop that I heard crunch Bunny's collar-bone. Green Giant was already out of the fight, not good. He landed into a roll that ended with him standing in a crouch.

Top clicked the safety off his rifle, I heard and yelled,

"Don't! We need him alive!"

Top tried to switch his angle of assault to a buttstroke with the stock of his weapon, but the split second switch gave our man enough time to put a one knuckle punch into his throat, shift to the side, and...

handcuff him?

Where the fuck did he get those from.

I'd had enough of him hurting my team,

"Federal Agent! Stop or I will shoot!"

He didn't believe me.

He rushed me in a crouch, I tried to aim non-lethally.

He had all the advantages here, I couldn't get a shot off.

I threw my rifle at him to block his momentum, he swatted it away and pivoted around coming up on my right side, which meant I couldn't get at my tactical folding knife, well, not yet anyway.

He came in for what I thought was still a barreling tackle, but he jerked to a stop an inch from me, swung his arm in and grabbed my knife out of my pocket, and threw it across the room.

Fair is fair... I suppose.

He turned his mass back the way he came, rising into a boxer's stance, covering his chest and face. With no bulky gloves he still had a good field of vision.

I figured this was easy, fake getting around his guard so he turns to meet me, pivot the opposite direction, catch him in the ribs with a couple of nice haymakers. Put him down for a second.

Mistake number two.

I faked right and he dropped into a leg sweep I was completely unprepared for. Boxers don't do that, he tricked me, again.

I needed to stop underestimating this guy and get serious.

I swung my legs around, jumping to my feet but staying back. Let him take the offensive again, hoping I'd have better luck playing defense, maybe get this guy into a wrist-lock or a chokehold or something. Anything to get him to stop moving around so damn much and get into some handcuffs.

He was expecting a counter attack, so he stepped back into a defensive stance as well.

We eyed each other up in the split second it took for us to adapt our battle plans. I don't know what he saw when he looked at me, his poker face was way too good. But what I saw, I didn't expect one bit.

I figured this guy for a doofus in a suit. Head of the board of directors, sitting at his desk, signing paperwork he never reads.

What was actually in front of me was a warrior, a kindred spirit. I saw the pain inside him, whatever it was that made him who he is now, painted all over his calculated, frantic fighting style. He didn't practice a martial art, he didn't compete in tournaments with pads and mouth guards.

This guy was genuinely dangerous, he'd transformed himself into a weapon. See his face on TV at a press conference or a charity event, and you'd see the foppish charisma of a rich man who doesn't know any better, but in that moment I knew exactly who I was fighting.

And why Echo Team was sent on this seemingly innocuous mission.

I had just squared up with The Batman, and we were getting ready for round two.

Third mistake.

He recognized the realization I was making, and used the extra half second in a much wiser way than I did.

He reached into a pocket in his pajama pants and tossed another one of those gas things at me. The last one had been harmless, just used to stun us, this one felt like pepper spray. My eyes were on fire.

I couldn't really see what happened, but I heard him crash out the large picture window on the outside wall of the bedroom.

I ran over and looked out.

No one.

He couldn't have gotten nearly far enough on foot to not be in visual range, but the side of the building was smooth stone.

I looked around the room, Top and Bunny were both hurt, but operational again. Bunny was obviously in a lot of pain, every breath looked like barbed wire being dragged out of his lungs, but he was standing.

"He's still in the building."

Top looked at me like I had three heads,

"How you figure that boss?"

"He leapt out the window, but didn't land on the ground, secret panel or something, I don't know. Find him."

 

Stately Wayne Manor  
Gotham City  
03:15AM

We swept the house.

All we found was the butler, Alfred.

Well, he found us.

He swung around a corner with a large-bore double-barreled shotgun. Instantly recognizing that if he took a shot at one of us, the other two would kill him.

Not much for answers at the site. We cuffed him and brought him with us.

If Bruce Wayne was still in his mansion, we couldn't find him. It's possible he could have sneaked around, room to room, since we could only cover so much ground as a three-man team, but the probability of that was low.

One of us would have run into him.

And how he got back inside is still a mystery.

We took Alfred with us and got back to our transport. If Bruce Wayne wanted his butler back, he'd have to come to us. Billionaire playboy or vigilante hero. The play was his to call, and I hoped he took the smart option.

Hell, get him on our side, he could have his own team to lead once we vetted enough recruits.

I shook the Joe Ledger and Echo Team meet The Batman fantasy out of my head and looked out the window of our helicopter.

I already knew that Church was being coy with the facts when he sent us here. But kidnap Batman? Won't Gotham notice their caped crusader is missing? Won't the crime families and other underworld villains run amok?

The Gotham PD is notoriously corrupt and inept. The city won't last a week.

I guess Green Arrow and The Flash will have to split custody, who knows, maybe Martian Manhunter can come by with a T-Craft and defend the gates.

Jesus fucking Christ my life weird.

The last thing the DMS needs is the goddamned Justice League on our backs.

I know Church is smart enough to realize this, I just hope we get what we need before someone takes the offensive.

 

The Hangar  
New York  
04:25AM

We landed and rushed inside. We didn't bother putting Alfred in an interrogation room. We weren't going to 'beat it out of him' so to speak. He was a prisoner, but not a hostile one, and not even an enemy really. He was human leverage.

It felt silly if I'm honest.

How many times has Bruce had to come to the rescue of Alfred, or Commissioner Gordon, or Barbara Gordon, etc... We were setting up this play like we're the damned Riddler. Playing into Bruce's tactical knowledge.

I guess Church wanted Batman to come barging into a trap?

I hoped I was about to find out. Church saw me coming down the corridor towards the TOC and waved me into his office. I jogged over, went in, and shut the door behind me. He started the conversation before I could let my inner smartass come out and play,

"If you have any terse words or superhero jokes for me, save them, we need to talk business, now."

That didn't sound good, but really, meetings with the big man never are about sunshine and rainbows,

"It looks like some of our friends have talked with some of Mr. Wayne's friends. They have come to a mutual agreement. An agreement to put a nuclear warhead in any and every major American city that they can."

"Do we know which 'friends' we're dealing with here?"

"On our side, no, we don't. The unfortunate reality is we have too many enemies who would try this sort of thing. On the Gotham side, we got word from their police scanners and some well placed phone taps about major money laundering going on. Millions more than the crime families deal with."

"But if you want a city full of cops who look the other way, no place better than Gotham."

"All too correct Captain. We know this money laundering is connected with the nuke project, but we need to squeeze harder to find out where the money is coming from, and where it goes once it is, cleaned, so to speak."

"So we kidnap Bruce Wayne's butler?"

"There are many influential fingers pointing at Mr. Wayne as one of the sources of the money. His accounts have paid out large amounts to front companies these mobsters are using."

"You think it's actually him doing it?"

"I do not. I do want everyone else to think we do. A knock on the door in the middle of the afternoon makes us look like we're being friendly with a potential source of terrorist income. We needed to look our part. Even though things didn't go as planned, we still look like the good guys."

"About that plan, may I use some of those terse words now?"

Church gave me a glare,

"My intentions were not to get your men hurt, He had been in that bed himself before you entered the house. I saw it on your video feed the same as you saw it in person. We have two new operatives for Echo team to fill in the revolving door positions of sniper and demolitions. Come down to the training rooms and I'll introduce you."

 

The Hangar  
New York  
04:40AM

Church and I walked down to the massive training area, I saw Top and Bunny had already met our new recruits. Though I instantly knew they weren't real rookies, they just hadn't been in our ranks yet.

"A sniper without a scope, let alone a rifle? Interesting. Do I call you Green, or Arrow, or what?"

He grinned, I suppose everyone has something to say when they meet an honest to god superhero,

"My call sign is Green Arrow, but in here, you can just call me Oliver. My cohort here would probably prefer his real name as well."

Oliver motioned over to the wiry young man standing beside him, spinning a wooden practice knife between his fingers. I wasn't familiar.

"And you are?"

"Richard, people used to call me Dick, but that went out of style a long time ago."

Holy shit.

"You're Robin."

He reacted a bit colder than Oliver.

"I was. My call sign is Nightwing, for casual conversation, Richard, Rich, Rick, or even Dick if I don't sense any sarcastic undertones."

"And if you do?"

The wooden knife whizzed out of his hand and struck me dead in the heart, pretty sure I felt a bruise forming, but I kept it off my face. Takes more than that to get the unflappable Joe Ledger riled up.

"Point taken, Richie."

He sneered at me, this was certainly the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

"So you're our demo guy?"

"Yeah, it's not technically my 'specialty' but you learn a lot working with Bruce. Well, working FOR Bruce I should say. Where is he anyway?"

I shot a look a Mr. Church and he nodded approval,

"It's a delicate situation with him, we can't be seen as friendly with him becau-"

Dick cut me off,

"You know that isn't him damnit!"

I took control back,

"Yeah, we do know, but that doesn't change public perception. Any government agency, even a secret one like ours can't be seen being all lovey-dovey with him. We couldn't take him on our terms so-"

"So that's why Alfred is here. Leverage. Typical. All you villains think the same."

I cut another look at Church, this time he spoke,

"Mr. Grayson does not approve of our tactics, but we have some leverage of our own on him, and Mr. Queen here. It is unfortunate, but it is how it went,"

He turned and looked at them both,

"You both forced my hand here, I hope you can one day see it that way, but this has to stay secret. Completely and entirely. Millions could die and if anyone suspects that a cape or rifle is coming after any one of these cells, planting the bombs, they will wipe out more innocent people than any war."

We all were looking at Church now, he continued.

"We've all here saved the world from one thing or another. But this isn't that. This isn't a death-ray built on the moon, or a weaponized disease released in a third world country. This is nuclear devastation the likes no one has ever seen. This entire country will become a smoldering, radioactive crater if we can't stop it."

 

"Distribution" Warehouse  
The Docks, Gotham  
Six Months Ago

Sat on an armless swivel chair, hunched over a laptop, itself sat on a rather ornate cocobolo desk. The man in the purple suit didn't turn around when his guests walked in.

"Fellows please, make yourselves at home, I'm just finishing up something... Personal. It'll be noooooo time at all."

Sebastian Gault and Alexander "Toys" Chismer each selected identical wingback chairs to sit in whilst their host tapped away on keys. Neither would bring it up, but over the laptops speakers they heard a group of people begging for their lives. The noise stopped abruptly as the Joker latched the screen to the lower half of his computer. He turned his chair around, revealing himself with the somewhat dramatic flourish of his eyebrows.

"So, gentlemen, you've read my proposal? Have I put my precious jeuvos in the right basket?"

He smiled wider than a human should be able to, allowing his guests to see his skin was not made up to look as it did, his clownish appearance was permanent. Neither of them phased, Toys spoke first,

"Your plan is sound. Though your conclusion of The Batman's identity is somewhat suspect. Do you have evidence?"

The Joker sighed, long and drawn out. Toys was already growing tired of this walking caricature,

"The proof, sweetums, will be The BATMAN disappearing when Bruce Wayne is in jail."

Before Toys even registered the thought of pulling his pistol and shooting this idiot, Gault held a firm but reassuring hand on his wrist, now speaking for himself instead of through his intermediary,

"You are well aware of your own reputation. Is it really outside your boundaries to have us frame one of the most successful businessmen of our time, just for shits and giggles? I don't think it is, and Wayne Enterprises takes care of me just fine. They love all the cutting edge medicine we produce, they just don't know it's to combat bugs and viruses we're creating."

The Joker's scowl was just as animated as his smile, Gault didn't stop Toys from putting a tentative hand under his jacket,

"There are two ways this goes chum. The first way, which I prefer, you help me frame Bruce-y boy for all sorts of lovely capital crimes, treason, money laundering, conspiracy to commit murder, terrorism, all of it. If you do that, you get paid in something far better than money. The second way,"

He cleared his throat as if about to make a regal speech, and immediately launched into a throat shredding scream,

"THE SECOND WAY ENDS WITH YOU DEAD!"

As he screamed, two giants came up behind the chairs and grabbed Sebastian and Toys by the elbows, wrenching their arms behind their backs.

"I'm so sorry to have not introduced my friends, Mr. Dorrance and Matt Hagen. Most people call them Bane and Clayface respectively. Always the theatrics in this city, but hey, who am I to complain, fits my style personally."

Sebastian and Toys looked at each other through their peripheral vision, they could read each others minds because they were thinking the same thing,

'Why the fuck did we go to Gotham'?

The money they had, all the power, it didn't matter here. Corruption was king, and therefore old hat, all the palms were already greased, and everyone always looked the other way. These two had helped topple entire countries and were powerless to stop what would happen to them. Unless they did as they were paid to do.

The Joker pulled a handgun out from under his orange lined, purple suit jacket,

"Tick. Tock."  
  
  


3-D Fun House  
Virginia Beach, VA  
02:26PM

Mindreader gave us a hit on some suspected sites for these nukes. One was under a 'Fun House' on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. I knew I had to take that one with Echo Team.

Well, the new Echo Team? Not really sure what to call us. Going on an op with Green Arrow and Nightwing was still as surreal an idea to me as it was when I first met them, a little less than ten hours ago. But I just had to roll with it. We loaded up into the Chinook transport helicopter and cut our way across the sky.

Local PD had cleared the area of civilians already, the place was evacuated, and we were the first people to go in since the call came through about the potential bomb. We huddled around each other at the front entrance, time to go over the plan one more time.

"Alright, Nightwing, you're with me down in the basement, we have no idea what kind of device this is, but we're the two here with experience defusing nuclear weapons, so one of us should know what to do with it... hopefully... Green Giant, Green Arrow, and Sergeant Rock, you guys sweep the top floor. This place is supposed to be evacuated, but no one has been inside to check. Local PD has their panties in a twist about the bomb so they won't go near it. I'd bet there'll be a surprise or two waiting for us in there, so everyone stay sharp."

With that, we made our entrance, quickly and quietly. The first staircase we saw, Dick and I split off from the group. No hired guns so far, seems the place may actually be empty.

A quick jog down and what I had been hoping would be maintenance rooms and offices turned out to be anything but.

"Nightwing, I know we're not the best of friends, but stick close to me, I've got a bad feeling about being down here."

He gulped down his own fear, and took a steadying breath,

"Yeah, copy that Cowboy, this is already looking a little familiar, in ways I do not like at all."

A maze of mirrors expanded outwards, taking up the entire basement level of the building. As unnerving as it was, it did give us a good 360 degree view of our surroundings, I just tried to keep telling myself it was an advantage.

We inched our way down corridor after corridor of our own reflections, having to turn back from a couple dead ends, I noticed Dick was cracking the mirrors that led down those pathes with his collapsed staff, more the size of a baton in its current state, smart kid.

We'd tried every possible path and still found nothing. I tapped my earbud to the team channel to see if the rest of Echo Team was having any luck.

"Cowboy to Sergeant Rock, any news on your end? We've got nothing down here."

"Negative Cowboy, place is a ghost town."

Shit, Mindreader can only extrapolate from the information it's given, but it isn't usually this wrong about anything. Something was hinky here, I could feel it.

"Copy that Sergeant Rock, meet us down here with the rest of the team, we got some glass to break."

Top wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he followed his orders and got himself, Bunny, and Oliver to the basement ASAP.

I turned to Dick and laid out the plan,

"Start breaking the mirrors, something is hidden down here, or if it isn't, the DMS can pick up the bill, either way, it's a great stress reliever."

He smirked with a bit of an eye roll and got to work. After a minute or so we were joined by the rest of the team, all of us cracking mirrors, looking for a hidden room, or compartment, or anything really. It didn't take long to find it, as luck would have it. I buttstroked a mirror and the glass fell inwards, revealing a narrow hallway with a table in the middle of it.

"Cowboy to Echo Team, found our hidden entrance, converge on my location."

We stood with our heads peeking into the uncovered doorway, trying to hash out what exactly was in there. We were all thinking it, but Bunny said it,

"Guys, is it just me or does it smell like... rotten fish in there?"

He was right, my brain was trying to put together how that geled with 'nuclear device', and the math wasn't adding up. I decided to man up and be the leader I was hired to be,

"Alright, I'm headed in, everyone stay back, if there is a bomb in there, it isn't big enough to do much damage, but no need to waste all of us when it could be only one.

I stepped down the hallway as lightly as possible, it wouldn't help if I triggered a pressure plate, but it made me feel better. The stink got worse every inch I went, it was definitely fish, I was close enough that I could see what was on the table, and it pissed me off worse than most things are capable of.

it was small tin of brined fish, opened, and the rotten chunks inside were painted. They were painted red... this was literally a red herring. I tapped my earbud to Church's private channel,

"I assume you're seeing this boss?"

"Yes I am. Captain, have you taken a close look at the fish's heads? If not you should."

Weird, but Church always has the upper hand, so I just do what he says. And sure enough, they were smiling.

"Nope. I quit. Not him, not ever."

being his usual charming self, he responded,

"Your resignation is denied Captain. This misdirection has undoubtedly given him time to further whatever his real plans are. I'm sending a helicopter to the closest landing space, coordinates will be sent shortly."

"Copy that boss, Cowboy out."

I kicked the table over, letting the contents of the tin splash onto the floor. It didn't make me feel any better, but it didn't make me feel any worse. I walked back out to the main part of the basement and filled in the team.

"No bomb, just a can full of Jokerfish. We're getting air support back to The Warehouse, first order of business is figuring out how he tricked Mindreader. Bruce is still in play, and we have no idea where he is. If he's at Wayne Manor, he hasn't so much as walked passed a window since we tried to pick him up. So we still have nothing."

You could feel the entire team slump its shoulders at the news. Dick however felt a little differently.

"Let's hope Bruce stays off the grid, keep himself out of jail, and give me a chance to finally kill that fucking clown."

Not gonna lie, I was definitely starting to like the kid. He's got more smarts than his mentor that's for sure. The Joker should be something people talk about in the past tense, not an ongoing terror to Gotham City, and now, the world at large.


End file.
